46 comments:

Have a lovely time tonight with the future in-laws. And Passover greetings to all the pixies who celebrate.

I'm glad that the vet office is helping with finding a home for the kitty, Kathy.

W: a list of today's irritants:- I spent all of preschool time trying to get appointments arranged and tasks accomplished, with no real progress to show for it, or without the answers that I wanted to hear. (Tried to book with E's allergist, who said to come back when she was bigger, but since it's now been a year and a half, we need to go back to the pediatrician and get a new referral. And the allergist is booking a YEAR ahead now. Apparently word has caught on that she's good.) (Then, I called the furniture store to see if the couch is still under warranty, and the only warranty left is for things that aren't broken right now. So, I'm going to have to pay out of pocket and call the repair guy myself. Also, it looks like the archival documents from WWI that I'm trying to track down were destroyed with much of the rest of Potsdam in 1945, according to the archives that I contacted.)- E has asked "Why why why" roughly eight million times in the past two weeks. I thought we'd gotten through most of that, and it's returned with a vengeance. Even her preschool teacher noted it today. I am weary. (The "why why why" has also been accompanied by a new stubborn streak, which is fun.)- The province announced that they're trying to force a pay cut on all teachers, because they're apparently trying to pay for their financial mismanagement by targeting schools and libraries. I'm going to need to plan how much of our savings goes to house maintenance this summer, and how much needs to remain as a cushion to absorb lost wages (including a possible strike, since the teachers' contract ends at the end of this school year, but the province is trying to force both a pay cut and a three-year wage freeze).

AW: Mr. Q's promotion has gone through and is now permanent (he already had the position temporarily this year, to fill in for an early retirement). If he hadn't gotten that, we would have had to deal with a more drastic pay cut than everyone else. We'll be fine.

Tiger's grandmother says she has found him a home, with a caregiver for another neighbor!

The current plan is to put him in a house with 2 other cats for tonight, and move him to his new home tomorrow. I'm not thrilled with that plan, since other cats stress the guy out; but don't think I get to call the shots here.

I hope so, too. I offered to keep him a while longer, but Mom is a charge-ahead, we-have-a-plan kind of person, it seems. (She told me not to go anywhere until this other person comes back, at some indistinct time!)

Well, it turns out that Tiger had been in and out of that neighbor's house, and so he is comfortable there, and knows the neighbor's caregiver (who will take him to her home tomorrow), so this should be a happy placement. Yay!

That neighbor is recovering from something in a medical facility, so her daughter (who is caring for the cats daily) worked out this solution. It was delightful to meet her. She grew up on this block, and remembers the neighborhood kids performing plays in my back yard! The cat immediately settled in on a bed he likes, which is a great relief.

W/AW? Mini awoke at 2:45 am and did not go back to sleep (I was unaware that she hadn't fallen back asleep when I did). She protested, loudly and crabbily, that she should not have to go to school today. I made her go anyway. At 10:00, the nurse called, with the report that she had 101 temperature. So I went to get her. When we got home, she had no fever. She went to sleep for a couple of hours, and has seemed mostly fine since. What is going on? Technically, I'm supposed to keep her home tomorrow, but I already told her teacher she's coming to school.

QWP - Yikes. Cutting teachers' salaries and decreasing funding for libraries is not a way for a government to get re-elected. It may solve their financial mismanagement problems for the short term, but voters have long memories.

We have a few (very few) good allergists in town and they book waaaayyyy in advance also. I hear you about the "new referral" part, too. Sheesh.

(((esperanza))) Not exactly the best week for minimal sleep and temporarily feverish family members. I hope things improve as the week goes on.

Yay, Liz, for your hosting success!!

W: It's Holy Week, so I'm overwhelmed. That isn't surprising, as it happens every year, and I will make it through as I always do. I'm quite stuck in terms of what to preach on Sunday. I've been in this congregation for almost 17 years. What can I possibly say about Easter that they haven't already heard three or four times? Aaaaaagggghhhhh.

Well. During Passover, the WH spokesperson decided to claim that at least Hitler did not use gas on his own people. This is the mouth of the WH. During Passover, which commemorates the escape of oppressed people from the killing forces, we are told Hitler was not so bad.

I'm hoping that peace will come, but not feeling like we are moving in the right direction. Apparently, I have not run out of outrage.

Esperanza, have you thought of "you can read quietly in your bed until 6 a.m."? (Or some quiet acceptable alternative that does not include a full start to the day, because Mom and Dad need some sleep already.)

Oh, they were both in their rooms. I got up to try to shoo them back to sleep. The issue is that they need more sleep than they're getting. I have no fireplacing idea why they're waking up so fireplacing early.

Is it getting lighter outside earlier there? Although 3am seems pretty early (unless you're in northern Canada in the summer). I don't know what to tell you to get them not to wake up in the night: mine only sleeps through the night because her room is incredibly dark. Maybe a clock in the room, where they know that it isn't morning until it reaches a certain point? (I keep being tempted to get one of those sleep clocks for E. What's been working lately has been "It isn't morning until you hear Daddy getting ready for work.")

It doesn't start getting light till about 6:45, so that's not it. We're far enough south that it doesn't get light super early, even at the solstice. They can tell time, so I can say, it's not morning until 6, but that doesn't seem to be working much.

I doubt it. It is apparently very common for kids on the autism spectrum to have sleep disturbances similar to what Sweet experiences. She doesn't have enough other symptoms for such a diagnosis, though. We've asked doctors, and they don't know what to do, other than prescribing sleep medication, which I'm not willing to give her. It is usually spring when it happens most often.

Mini coughed herself awake one night, I know. She wakes up in the middle of the night so seldom that I think she doesn't know how to put herself back to sleep.

In addition, Sweet in particular has always picked up on parental stress levels. And, double preacher household during Holy Week = elevated stress levels. That may be it, too.

Thank you! Me too. Mini has put herself to bed upstairs for some reason. I don't care where she sleeps, as long as she does. The weather should be quiet tonight. Sweet fell asleep pretty easily. I should get off the internet and go to sleep, too!

W: That thing where a parent worries about the friends that your kid is hanging out with....I thought that would happen later than first grade. It's too much to explain now, but Mini had a friend over for 45 minutes yesterday. In that time, she lied to me, lied to her mother, tried to manipulate me into babysitting her AND her brother today, and was super sneaky. In first grade!

So many hugs for sleep deprived parents everywhere. I remember it well.

Mini's friend's behaviour is concerning, esperanza. Especially at such a young age. :(

kathy, I am shocked at the sheer ignorance and barely-disguised anti-Semitism of the WH. I thought nothing could shock me anymore, but yesterday proved me wrong.

W: My house is a mess. I don't like mess. We are hosting Easter dinner on Sunday (we usually have it on Monday, so I can de-zombify after Easter Sunday) because our son and his partner have to fly back home on Monday morning. They won't care if the floors are bit iffy and the dust is thick-ish, right?

Oy, Esperanza. Most kids are at least trying to be on good behavior with another kid's family. On the other hand, kids at that age are not always making conscious moral choices, or even able to necessarily tell where the lines are. I would assume she is not *trying* to be bad; but perhaps this is how she gets her way at home?

It is awkward calling another person's kid out on untruths or obnoxious behavior when they happen right in front of the other parent. But I would not hesitate to calmly set things straight in the future; or to set boundaries and stick to them.

Sue! Your boys will not care about a little dust and signs that the house is occupied. If they do, they can pitch in and take care of it, because they know this is your busiest week. xoxo

The least worrisome thing this girl did was leave her wet-from-an-accident underwear in the upstairs bathtub. That, I almost get. She had an accident and was embarrassed about it. Not a pleasant thing to find several hours later, but that seems age-appropriate.

I don't want to tell Mini she can't play with this girl, because knowing Mini, that would backfire on me. But you can be assured that the next time she comes over, they're playing outside only, and I'm supervising more closely.

Sue, I'm cleaning house today, so I'm not the one to ask. Ridiculous, but I'm doing it anyway. My parents are coming tomorrow to help us out with the kids. (AW)

I finally went down to the big warehouse store. The enormous parking lot was almost full, on a weekday morning. I forgot my shopping list, and still bought half the universe! We are all set on certain items for a while, that's for sure.

But it will be *perfect* for getting jumbo supplies for the rehearsal dinner picnic!

We used to go to that giganto store all the time, when we had kids, and they had activities, and we had the kids' friends' families over a lot, and we had an extra refrigerator in the garage. Let the membership lapse when all that was no longer the case, so it has been a while...

I bought 3 dresses to try for the mother of the groom gig. The first arrived today, and it will do (by which I mean, it could only be more perfect if it was an inch or 2 longer, and a tad less fitted around the midsection). But I'm waiting until the others arrive to make any decisions. May yet turn to the place where they custom-fit designs to you (thanks, Liz).

W: Air conditioner is out upstairs, where my parents sleep. It's not horribly hot outside, but it was 83 up there yesterday when I finally figured out it wasn't working. (It's also Baboo play area--they've been up there often but hadn't complained).

W: Then, 2:15 am, smoke alarm batteries decided to die. That was fun. The ceiling is tall enough that I have to get the actual ladder to reach it. Thankfully, we had spare batteries.

W: I am not functioning at optimum capacity on what promises to be a full day.

One more time, all my critters in both houses of the legislature have heard from me, and so far I have refrained from actually saying What The Fireplace???? But I am very deeply uneasy about recent international WTF events, and the incoherence of the administration bringing them on. Apparently they have collectively forgotten the Holocaust, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and what somebody *on their own elite team* said yesterday, or last week, or this morning.

So. Go see this! Scroll down for closeups! http://www.popville.com/2017/04/the-pop-peep-project-we-the-peeple-2017-womens-march/

kathy, the "we the peeps" link is fantastic. Just what I needed this afternoon.

W: It's time for me to turn on a dime from the somber worship service this morning to writing a joyful Easter sermon. It happens every year, this emotional/spiritual whiplash, but it never gets easier.

AW: If I get it done, I'll have tomorrow free to enjoy visiting with our son and his partner.

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